Feminist and LGBTQIA+ resistance to anti-gender movements in Czechia and Romania

During the last decade, issues associated with gender and sexuality became highly politicized topics all around the world. Such issues caused polarization among populations particularly in the region of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), where feminist and LGBTQIA+ political projects have been long described not as genuine grassroots movements, but rather as NGO-ized, transactional and tributary to international donors. Within such political context, the anti-gender sentiment and politics were understood as a response to Western ideological imperialism and the enforcement of moral and legal foreign frameworks. Scholars studying anti-genderism within the region, tend to see religiosity of the CEE countries’ populations as one of the main driving forces for such sentiments. To support or refute the hypothesis, we compare the mobilizations around gender and sexuality through two case studies: Czechia and Romania. While the majority (approximately 90%) of the Romanian population is mostly religious, Czechia is among the least religious countries in the world. To understand the similarities and differences in the mobilization around gender and sexuality issues, we use the interactionist approach and scrutinize the dynamics of the conflicts between anti-gender campaigns and the feminist and LGBTQIA+ resistance to it. By comparing the similarities and differences in Czechia and Romania, we aim to explore how political economy affects such mobilizations in the countries. In particular, we re-examine the role played by the anti-communist backlash or lack of politicization of class issues and redistributive claims.